The Arab Foreign Ministers welcomed at the conclusion of their extraordinary meeting yesterday evening in Cairo the "positive elements" in the speech of US President Bush who called on July 16 for holding an international peace conference for the Middle East. a decision issued by the Arab Ministers affirmed after deliberations for more than seven hours welcomed the positive elements included in the speech of US President Bush as elements that they can build on, especially on the issue of the two state solution and the establishment of the Palestinian state. The Arab Ministers expressed support to holding an international meeting or conference in the presence of all parties concerned according to the agreed upon references for the aim of launching direct negotiations on all tracks and engaging in a negotiations process to reach a final settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict within a specific timetable. The Syrian delegate to the Arab League who headed the Syrian delegation to the ministerial meeting said his country expresses reservations on any Arab welcoming to the speech of Bush. The Syrian delegate who withdrew from the session before it ended said: We presented to the meeting a statement to express grave concern regarding the split in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to affirm the Arab commitment to work on achieving Palestinian national conciliation and unity and to maintain the unity of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. the Syrian reservation is because the statement we presented was not included and it seems they want to ignore this important topic. He added: Syria expresses reservation regarding the initiative of President Bush because we believe that discussing the Palestinian situation in that conference called for by Bush in light of the Palestinian split will lead to elimination of the Palestinian cause. Diplomatic sources said the ministers were surprised to see the absence of Syrian FM from the meeting that will discuss the American initiative which completely ignored the Syrian track which of course reflects the Syrian concerns that the Arab FMs will adopt the American standpoint. The sources said the ministers of the Gulf countries and Egypt and Jordan who will meet with US Secretary of State Rice will stress on the need to include the final settlement on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks to find a comprehensive and permanent solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Amro Musa said in a press conference that the international conference must be comprehensive and its agenda must include all parties in the conflict and to be specified within a set timetable otherwise the conference will not achieve any success.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on July 31, 2007